Community Involvement

Family First

Family First Pregnancy Care Center is located in Oracle and Winkelman, serving local families providing parenting education classes, children’s story hours and a family diaper bank.

In 2018, we donated filled backpacks to the children and teens.

Creative Hands

The Creative Hands group meets from September through May every Friday at 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM at the church to design and create new clothing for children for the clothing bank at Catalina Community Services. In 2011 this small group created over 475 beautiful new garments for boys and girls. New “creative hands” are always welcome and no experience or equipment is necessary, training will be supplied. Also, remember both women and men are welcomed.

Impact of Southern Arizona

IMPACT of Southern Arizona (formerly Catalina Community Services) is among the many mission projects the Vista congregation generously supports. IMPACT helps area residents improve their lives through a variety of services. Vista’s mission outreach team is currently involved with three programs provided by IMPACT.

COMMUNITY FOOD BANK: Donations of food and money are collected the first Sunday of each month. IMPACT gets more “value for the dollar” through cash donations they use to make bulk purchases. Donations of dry cereal, peanut butter, pasta and rice, canned fruit and toiletries are always in high demand for those who prefer to give tangible items. Approximately 400 different families in Pima County District One and the Pinal County Copper Corridor are served monthly through this program.CLOTHING BANK: Vista sponsors a warm clothing and bedding drive each winter. New and gently used items are donated to the Clothing Bank where they are sorted and displayed on racks at Loving Threads, a storefront in Catalina Point Plaza. Financially eligible area residents can periodically select needed clothing at no cost, which helps to stretch their limited income.SENIOR ACTIVITY CENTER: Vista volunteers enrich the lives of seniors who receive center based hot meals at the Senior Activity Center in Catalina Point Plaza through a monthly birthday celebration for individuals who have birthdays that month. In this way, participants are individually “lifted up” and celebrated for their special day. This has proven to be a bonding experience for regular attendees.

Snak Paks

Vista de la Montana UMC, in cooperation with Santa Catalina Catholic Church, each week during the school year provides a bag of nutritious, child-friendly food to 60 students at Coronado K-8 School in Catalina who have been judged to be nutritionally at risk. Most of these children depend heavily on the federally funded Free and Reduced-Price Breakfast-Lunch program at the school Monday through Friday. Vista and Santa Catalina purchase the food from the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona through donations from their members and friends. Volunteers pick up the food from the food bank, package the food into Snak Paks and deliver these to the school on Friday to be given to the students at the end of the day.

Memorial Day for Davis Monthan Air Force Base

In honor of those who has made the ultimate sacrifice, we remember Memorial Day during the month of May by collecting donations to provide phone cards for deployed troops from Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson so that they are able to “call home”. The contributions are divided between the phone cards and the family service program for deployed troops called “Hearts Apart”. This program provides family assistance and programs for the troop’s children.

UMCOR

We provide both monetary support and have mission trips to work centers for national and international disasters.

Labyrinth

This meditational space is located to the southeast and down the hill from the Sanctuary. It is a one way path: one path to the center and one path out again. There are no dead ends or places to get lost as in a maze. One should look at the walk as a three part process: purgation, illumination and union.